German ISP proposes keeping all emails domestic to avoid NSA

A German Internet service provider has come up with one way to avoid the prying eyes of the U.S.’s National Security Agency.

Deutsche Telekom, partially owned by the German government, has proposed sending domestic emails just through German servers, according to the German news agency DW.

The company wants to partner with other ISPs in the country, as well as with ISPs throughout Europe. Germany has a complicated relationship with the NSA. Tens of thousands of Germans have protested in nearly 40 cities, upset that they’re one of the agency’s most-targeted countries. But Chancellor Angela Merkel, seen as complicit with the NSA, won a massive reelection in September. And Germany’s own spy agency, the BND, has a well-established information-sharing working relationship with the NSA.

Of the many revelations of NSA surveillance programs revealed by former agency contractor Edward Snowden, few are as far-reaching as XKeyscore, which shows that the agency is able to tap international cables to get access to nearly anything on the Internet.

Deutsche Telekom representative Thomas Kremer made the agency’s intent clear. “We want to guarantee that no byte between senders and recipients within Germany will even temporarily cross the border,” he said.